PARIS ATTACKS: French fighter bombers pound IS stronghold
France has launched airstrikes on the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa in "self defence" of the deadly attacks in Paris that claimed 132 lives.
France's defence ministry confirmed 12 warplanes, including 10 bombers, dropped 20 bombs on the stronghold that has served as the ISIS defacto capital.
The bombing struck a command-and-control centre, a training facility, recruitment building and a munitions depot.
Speaking in Turkey where world leaders have gathered for a meeting of the G20, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius described the bombing as an act of "self defence".
"That's what we did today with the strikes on Raqqa. We can't let Daesh (an Arabic pejorative acronym for IS) attack without a reaction,"
The French defence ministry announced the attack earlier, saying in a statement the "first target destroyed was used by Daesh as a command post, jihadist recruitment centre and arms and munitions depot".
French fighter jets taking off to bomb the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa. Source: Supplied
The planes left from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates and was conducted in co-ordination with American forces, the ministry said.
French President Francois Hollande on Saturday blamed the Islamic State group for the gun and suicide attacks that left 132 dead in Paris on Friday, calling them an "act of war".
PARIS ATTACKS: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR
- Death toll now stands at 132
- 89 people were killed at Bataclan theatre
- As many as 352 were wounded, many in critical condition
- Six coordinated gun and bomb attacks
- Three teams of terrorists
- French national named Ismaël Omar Mostefaï as one of the attackers
- Father and brother arrested
- Europe-wide manhunt underway for Abdeslam Salah
- Hundreds of mourners flee Place de la Republique on false alarm.
ISIS claimed responsibility for a coordinated terror attack in Paris on Friday night that claimed the lives of 132 people and injured hundreds more.
In a statement, ISIS said it targeted Paris because it was "the capital of prostitution and vice, the lead carrier of the cross in Europe".
French warplanes at an airbase in Jordan. Source: Supplied
French President Francois Hollande said Sunday he wanted the state of emergency declared after the Paris attacks to last three months, parliamentary sources told AFP, a move that would cover the upcoming UN climate conference.
"He told us he wanted the state of emergency to last three months," one of the sources said.
Any extension to a state of emergency beyond 12 days requires parliamentary approval.
The 12-day UN conference, which will be attended by dozens of heads of state, begins on November 30.
World leaders raised the alarm over an escalating international movement of "foreign terrorist fighters" in a draft statement drawn up Sunday at a summit in Turkey after the assaults claimed by ISIS jihadists.
G20 members said they would share intelligence, track border crossings and boost aviation security to prevent international travel by "terrorists", without identifying the Islamic State group or any other specific threat.
"We are concerned over the acute and growing flow of foreign terrorist fighters and the threat it poses for all states," the G20 chiefs said in a draft statement ahead of its formal adoption at their meeting in the Turkish Mediterranean resort of Antalya.
"We are resolved to address this threat," they said.
Leaders said they were determined to counter violent extremism, recruitment and to prevent "terrorists" from exploiting technology, including the Internet.
French security forces at Place de la Republique respond to what was later found to be a false alarm. Source: AAP
"The direct or indirect encouragement of terrorism, the incitement of terrorist acts and glorification of violence must be prevented," they added.
The discovery of a Syrian passport near the body of one of the Paris attackers has raised fears that some of the assailants might have entered Europe as part of the huge influx of people fleeing Syria's civil war.
Greek and Serbian authorities have confirmed the passport belonged to a man who registered as a refugee in October on the island of Leros and applied for asylum in Serbia a few days later.
It is now known that three of the suicide bombers were French nationals, but two of the men had lived in the Belgian capital Brussels.
News break - November 16
